Confession
by Azecreth
Summary: The world was made anew, but only Homura knew the truth behind it's creation, the muddled feelings that had been born of time. Yet even she couldn't keep the truth hidden forever, and eventually it would have to come out, even if she had to tell her avowed enemy.


Mitakihara shone in the morning sunlight, skyscrapers piercing the heavens, catching the light and scattering it on black stone and tinted glass, scattering it in a wave of brightness. It made quite the impressive display, with how the city spread out around those points like a panorama of development.

From her vantage point atop a cliff, Homura Akemi radiated satisfaction as she looked down on it all. This was her domain, a place where she held absolute power. With a thought she could wipe someone from recorded history. With a clap she could destroy this entire city, and remake it in a more pleasing form. But though she could do that, she refrained. Perhaps it was nostalgia, but the outcome was the same. Until she decided otherwise this would be the way of the world.

At the moment she sat at a table for two, an empty white seat across from her as an umbrella shaded her from the sun. On the table sat two cups of tea, both sporting mists rising from the surface. But one was untouched, while the other had been sampled.

Perhaps she would have someone else to sit there and drink it with her someday, but not right now. She was alone, without peer or equal. Just as it ought to be.

The cup rose in a firm, yet not overbearing grip, to arrive at waiting, curved lips. Breath whooshed across the surface, kicking mercurial ripples into motion for bare seconds before returning to stillness as steam was whisked away. Perfect.

Yet after taking a sip, the demon could only sigh in disappointment. This was a perfect replication of Mami's tea, from the ingredients, to preparation, to brewing. And yet there was no denying that it just couldn't compare. A pity really.

Leaning back in her seat, she closed her eyes to let the sounds of Mitakihara wash over her. It was busy, deafening, but she loved that. Water flowing, trees rustling in the wind, cars honking, machinery roaring, people laughing and crying. It served as a useful and temporary distraction from the burden of nigh omnipotence that rested upon her.

In that position she let her mind wander, glimpsing in upon her charges. Kyouko was being a truant as always, eating pocky and playing video games at an arcade rather than attending school. Hardly a surprise, and and an amused snort made itself known then. There were some things she was averse to changing, and this was one.

Next was Mami, conversing with her classmates during a break in class. That was nothing special, so she moved on. One level below, Madoka scribbled away, intently taking notes as her teacher went on, even the dutiful student. Nagisa did much the same as well. As for Sayaka, well...

A sudden flash of blue light that only she could see answered that question easily enough.

Another sigh, this time more resigned, tore free as Homura prepared. She remembered how this usually went, and so she was ready for any attempt by the blunette Archangel to awaken her Goddess. Above all, that had to be prevented.

But that wasn't what she did, instead heading on a beeline towards where she currently was. That, in turn, earned a confident smirk as she faced the looming situation. So, it would be a fight then? Excellent.

With a clap she transformed, her school uniform traded for a dress and gravity defying wings, taking on a regal appearance more befitting of a ruler. She had to play the part for the fool after all. So garbed, she clapped once more, this time the sound ringing through the city. That would get her minions to stand down, to watch rather than attack, and to guide Sayaka to where she was. The Devil had no desire to delay their meeting.

Soon enough she arrived, feet crunching on dirt as her cape billowed in the wind, sunlight reflecting off of a leveled sword of magical steel. Homura could feel the stern and judging gaze upon her, but regarded it dismissively as she took another sip of tea. It served two purposes, and both of those were fulfilled beautifully.

Having confirmed her earlier opinion about this tea, she kept her gaze upon the swirling beverage as she spoke to her guest. "May I help you, Sayaka Miki?"

"You know what I want." The voice was clear, calm, confident. Just like Homura would want Sayaka to be. Idly she wondered if the Archangel had found some trump card, a way to win this struggle at last. Just as rapidly though she banished that thought from her mind. If it had happened she would have known about it, as ruler of this place. "Let her go, and end this."

Homura remained seated, her finger tracing the lip of the tea cup as she addressed the demand. 'You know I can't do that. I will not allow Madoka to throw her life away out of some misplaced sense of obligation and responsibility." She could do that job perfectly well in her stead.

"She doesn't want this," Sayaka shot back, unswayed by whatever Homura might use as an excuse. "If you really care about Madoka and her feelings, then you have to let her go."

Homura's smirk widened, her attention still fixed as she turned to face the angry blunette at last. "I refuse. She was wrong, and I am correcting her mistake." As far as she was concerned, that was all there was to it.

A snarl tore free as Sayaka swung her sword, acting in a blur of motion as she lashed out at her opponent. But for how fast she was, Homura was faster in turn, and the sword didn't make contact. Instead, surprise flashed across her expression as the sword cut through nothing but air, the entire set up before her having vanished as easily.

From behind her a sigh came, and Homura watched with undaunted amusement as the Archangel spun about to find the table and person at it having shifted entirely to a new spot. At that point the Devil let her tea cup rest as she rose from her seat, stretching to her full height and glory as she brushed her hair back at the same time. Now then, time for their fun.

Still, she could be, and was, fairly relaxed about it. She had the advantage after all. As such she regarded her opponent with a calm and mindful eye, drawing on all she knew about the girl before letting out a chuckle "Fufufu, it seems that someone can't accept the possibility of their Goddess being fallible."

"What would you know," Sayaka replied fiercely, lunging forward with her sword flashing. "She made her choice, she saved all of us! You have no right to go against that!" Righteous fury radiated off of her in waves, much to Homura's amusement.

"She was wrong," Homura countered as she weaved back, effortlessly dodging as as she engaged with Sayaka. "That choice was made by a human, before she changed from the girl that I knew. If she had truly known the cost, she never would have agreed to it."

For all the wasted effort, Sayaka didn't give up, and Homura gave her enough to not dissuade her from this struggle. "How could you know that? I've spent an eternity with her, helping her, and she's the same, good, person that she was as a human. And it doesn't justify what you did to her!"

"Or perhaps you just didn't see it," Homura said calmly, swaying out of the way as thrown swords flew at her. "But I can't blame you for that. You haven't fought for her like I have, suffered for her like I have. You don't _understand._ "

Sayaka grunted, revealing new swords from a flourish of her cape as she began to dual wield the blades. "You keep saying that, but I don't think you get what that means," she challenged in turn. "A real friend wouldn't lock their friend up against their will, especially for making a mistake."

Homura was calm as she deflected a sword with her bare hand, moving back as the blunette dashed forward with both blades singing. "Perhaps. But then where would that leave you and everyone else?"

Sayaka frowned, obviously confused by the question as one might expect. "Me and Nagisa will rejoin Madoka, everyone else will go back to their lives, and things will go back to the way they were meant to be."

She was taken aback then as Homura laughed, the Devil relishing in such hilariously wrong assumptions as to what she was doing, and why. "And why would you want that? I made this world for you too after all. All of you."

"What the hell are you talking about?" That just seemed to make Sayaka more angry, but Homura couldn't really blame her as they continued their dance on the top of the cliff, since this wasn't something she had heard before. But why not tell her? There was no one to relate it to after all.

So she did. "I got to know all of you, in my fight through time. And while my primary focus was Madoka, that doesn't meant that I didn't care for any of you less. In fact, I got to know you all quite well."

In the blink of an eye, she was some distance away, posing like she was a dancer on the stage. "Mami Tomoe, a kindhearted girl who served as a shining example to all of us. Cultured, skilled, someone that we could all look up to. Once upon a time I would have given anything to be her. And she was just as lonely, tired, and broken. All too easy to smash into bits of glass. So I gave her this world, to be happy and to live without the stress and trauma of it all."

Sayaka charged forward, but before she could arrive Homura was gone again, this time standing off to the side, tiptoes on the edge of the cliff. "Kyouko Sakura, an orphan. Headstrong, reliable, self centered, a survivor. Rough edges surrounding a heart of gold. I gave her people to care about, a life where she didn't have to go it alone, or worry about the constant life or death struggle of being a magical girl."

She whisked back to the table in a moment, taking a sip of tea as Sayaka rounded on her. "I could have brought them back you know."

As she had expected, the claim was successful in bringing the blunette up short in confusion. "Who?"

"Their families," Homura explained matter of factly, rolling her hand in idle motions. "For someone who can bend reality to her very whim, it would be nothing to slip back the hands of time, prevent the accident, the contracts, the suffering, all of it."

It didn't get Sayaka to back down, but it did get her to stop for a moment as she glared at the Devil. "Then why don't you? This is a world where everyone's supposed to be happy right? So why don't you bring them back?"

"Fufufu, because Madoka wouldn't like that," Homura replied in turn, just before a sword skimmed the top of her tea cup, grazing her hand. "Those events are intrinsically tied to who they are. If I changed that, I doubt even you would be able to recognize what they might become."

She waited, and it seemed that Sayaka ceded the point. Even she was smart enough to know not to mess with history, or with people's wishes. That, of course, did not end the conflict here though as another sword sung through the air, and Homura vanished in an instant.

"Then there's Nagisa. The poor girl who just wanted to be with her mother. Now she has someone else to care about, to feed her, and for her to love in return. She and Mami do get along quite well together, don't you think?"

Once more a sword swung her way, and she gave Sayaka the honor of thinking that she had actually landed a hit before reappearing, floating in the air and yet letting her hands rest against her shoulders from behind.

"And then there's you," she sighed, taking her liberties for a moment with the close proximity of the blunette, enjoying the way her muscles tensed in surprise and a slight bit of fear. "Headstrong, casually dismissive of your own welfare, obnoxiously blind to the obvious. Daring, noble, heroic."

A smirk blossomed across her features as she turned Sayaka's head, letting their eyes meet in a silent joke. "All you needed...was a villain."

Her eyes widened in realization before Homura was gone, and standing in front of her once more, a hand resting on the hilt of the sword that she held. "Do you want to know the true reason I made this world?"

She was at Sayaka's side, brushing against the bare skin of her upper arm, aggressive action halted by stunned shock. "Love."

To the other side then, letting their backs press together even as she enjoyed every second of quiet reaction. "Not just Madoka. Every single one of you."

Up front, nearly touching as the sword was ignored, a gloved hand rising to cup Sayaka's chin, as emotions were spoken aloud ad the Devil put an end to this. "And do you know what the best part is?"

A clap rang in the air, reverberating through the world. Sayaka would find herself back in her bed, late at night, any memory of what had happened wiped and replaced with more pleasant thoughts of the fun afternoon she had had with Madoka and the others. Just as it ought to be.

In the same moment, Homura was back in her seat, as if the whole fight had never happened. Lifting a hand, she looked out on the horizon and the city beyond as she took one last, long sip, finishing off her tea.

"You'll never know it."


End file.
